Love Jihad. Muslim man convicted for murdering his Hindu girlfriend’s father and sister.

Muslim man convicted for murdering his ex-girlfriend's father and sister in 'ill-conceived plan' to get back together with her because the Hindu family did not approve.

Inferno: This is all that was left of the Dhanka family's mansion in Anaheim Hills,
California, which was burned down after becoming the scene of a double homicide

Alleged killer: Leela Dhanak testified how Iftekhar Murtaza, seen in this August photo, murdered her husband and elder daughter in a failed attempt to win over her younger daughter

                                          

• Iftekhar Murtaza, 29, was convicted Friday for the fiery attack on the Dhanak family in Orange County in 2007
• Murtaza was found guilty of stabbing to death Jaypraykash Dhanak, 56, slitting the throat of his 20-year-old daughter, Karishma, and setting their bodies on fire
• Wife Leela Dhanak was stabbed in the stomach and had her throat slashed, but miraculously survived 
• Mr Murtaza concocted the murder plot with two friends after Dhanka's youngest daughter, Shayona, broke up with him over religious differences
• Mr Murtaza married a 20-year-old suspected murderess in jail in 2011 after exchanging letters with her for five months
• Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER, RYAN GORMAN and ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 04:03 GMT, 23 November 2013 | UPDATED: 12:44 GMT, 23 November 2013

 
 
 

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A Southern California man was found guilty Friday in the savage revenge slaughter and torching of his ex-girlfriend's family after the teen dumped him over religious differences.

Iftekhar Murtaza, 29, stabbed, beat and slashed his ex-girlfriend's father and sister to death, slit her mother's throat and burned down the family's Orange County home in May 2007 - and now he faces the death penalty.

Mr Murtaza was 'upset' after being dumped Shayona Dhanak, then 18-years-old, two months before brutally murdering her family because her parents threatened to stop paying her college tuition if she didn't leave him.

Murderer: Iftekhar Murtaza is brought into Orange County Superior Court
Friday to hear the guilty verdict

The cold-blooded killer was found guilty of two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one conspiracy count, but declined to convict on kidnapping and murder during a burglary charges.

The trial's penalty phase begins December 2, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

'We're very pleased with the verdicts,' prosecutor Howard Gundy said, adding he was ready to move to the next phase. He declined to comment any further.

Mr Murtaza's attorney declined to comment after the trial.

Two of Murtaza's friends were previously convicted of the killings. Vitaliy Krasnoperov was sentenced to life in prison, and Charles Murphy Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Guilty: Mr Murtaza, left, listens to the verdicts between defense
attorneys Julie Swain, center, and Doug Myers, right

Delusional: Prosecutors said Murtaza was hoping that after the attack, his ex-girlfriend 
would see him as a 'white knight' and come back to him. She allegedly broke up with him because she was Hindu and he Muslim

                                      

Dhanak's parents were practicing Hindus and told her Mr Murtaza and his Muslim family came from a line of 'beggars and servants'.

From the outset of the trial, prosecutors claimed he planned the murder plot and paid a friend $30,000 to help him kill the teen's parents so he could be with her.

Mr Murtaza said he went home after the break-up, took ecstasy and starting chatting with a friend online about how he wished Dhanak's parents were dead.

'I didn't want to kill them,' he told the court, according to Fox News. 'It was just a figure of speech.'

'I was frustrated, I was upset,' he continued, 'I just wished they would accept me.'

'It's almost like I am not human to them, based on the family that I was born into.'

Mr Murtaza said he repeated his wish that the Dhanaks would die or disappear to dozens of friends out of his sense of frustration and despair and that his relationship would be fine if not for them.

The prosecution contended Dhanak wanted to end the relationship with the disturbed man because he had become controlling and violent.

              

        Bloodbath: Autopsy reports showed Jayprakash Dhanak (Right) suffered 29 stab wounds to his body, while a pathologist testified that Karishma Dhanak (left) was alive when her throat was slit and her body set alight

Leela Dhanak broke down on the stand as she talked about still hearing her spouse’s screams of terror in her sleep years later.

Mrs Dhanak told the Orange County courtroom that she was attacked when she came home in May 2007 and fell unconscious.

She was found on the front lawn of a neighbors property by police, who had responded to a fire at Mrs Dhanak's home.

The woman woke up from a coma three weeks later to discover the family’s Anaheim Hills mansion had been burned, and her husband, 56-year-old Jaypraykash Dhanak, and eldest daughter, Karishma Dhanak, 20, killed.

Last month, a pathologist testified that Karishma Dhanak was alive when her throat was slit and her body was doused with gasoline and set on fire.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512206/Muslim-Iftekhar-Murtaza-murdered-exs-Hindu-father-sister.html#ixzz2li5PsLdx
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Courtesy: Daily Mail. 

young British people don’t trust Muslims

BBC survey: quarter of young British people don’t trust Muslims.

More than 25 percent of Britons aged between 18 and 24 don’t trust
 Muslims, according to a recent BBC poll. (File photo: AFP)

Al Arabiya | 26 Sep 2013 :: More than a quarter of the 1,000 young Britons - aged between 18 and 24 - surveyed don’t trust Muslims, a BBC poll released on Wednesday shows.

According to the survey, 28 percent of the people interviewed said Britain would be better off with fewer Muslims while 44 percent said Muslims didn’t share the same values as the rest of the population, a BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat poll revealed.

About 60 percent, meanwhile, thought the British public had a negative view of Muslims.

In June, the BBC released the “Young People and Prejudice Survey” that included 1,001 people of the same age group. It showed similar same results; 27 percent of the people polled said they did not trust Muslims.

Professor Matthew Goodwin, a member of the ComRes government group behind the June survey, told the BBC: “every survey that I have run, and surveys run by my academic colleagues, makes it quite clear that a significant proportion of the British population hold negative views of Islam, and by extension British Muslim communities.”

According to the survey, 29 percent of young people blame Muslims for not doing enough to combat extremism in their communities while 26 percent and 21 percent respectively said Islamophobia regarding terror groups abroad and UK Muslims who have committed acts of terror were the reasons behind their mistrust.

However, the young people surveyed also showed suspicion of other religious groups.

About 16 percent said they did not trust Hindus or Sikhs, 15 percent said they did not trust Jewish people while 13 percent said they did not trust Buddhists and 12 percent stated that they did not trust Christians.(Courtesy:Al Arabiya)

At least six killed in Kabul suicide attack.

At least six killed in Kabul suicide attack.

Afghan policemen arrive to an area after a suicide vehicle

KABUL | 16 Nov 2013 ::  A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car in west Kabul, killing at least six people near a compound where Afghan elders will debate a security pact with the US next week, officials said.

Another 22 were injured when the vehicle blew up about 150 metres from the giant tent where some 2500 tribal elders and civil leaders will gather on Thursday to decide on the future of US troops in the country after Nato coalition pulls out in 2014.

“Initial information shows that unfortunately four civilians, one police and one soldier have been killed in today’s attack. Twenty-two more, the majority of whom are civilians, have been injured,” said spokesman for Afghan interior ministry Sediq Sediqqi, adding that the toll may rise.

A statement issued by the Afghan interior ministry said that the bomber was being pursued by security forces shortly before the explosion.

“The attacker driving a vehicle had been identified and was being pursued by security forces. He detonated himself after police opened fire on his vehicle,” a statement issued by interior ministry said.

Nasrullah, a witness, said: “I heard a big bang near the jirga site, and later saw ambulances carrying bloodied people. I saw at least three wounded in army uniforms.”

Earlier in the day, President Hamid Karzai had called on the Taliban and their allies to join the assembly, known as a 'Loya Jirga'.

“We invite them, please come to this national jirga of Afghanistan, raise your voice, raise your objection... and share your views,” he told a news conference in Kabul.

The draft pact was hammered out in Kabul last month during a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry. But he left without a final deal as Afghan President Hamid Karzai said only a jirga had the authority to decide the contentious issues.

These include a US demand to retain legal jurisdiction over its troops in Afghanistan, which would give them immunity from Afghan law. The request emerged as the main sticking point after Kerry’s visit.

The Taliban, whose government was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001, has rejected the jirga and warned members that they would be punished as “traitors” if they endorsed the deal.

Hezb-e-Islami, a Taliban affiliate, has also refused to send members to jirga, calling it “legalising the US occupation”.

If the agreement is passed by both loya jirga and parliament, between 5,000 and 10,000 US troops would stay in Afghanistan to help fight militants and train the national army.

Washington had been pushing for the agreement to be signed by the end of October to allow the US-led Nato coalition to plan the withdrawal of its 75,000 combat troops by December 2014.

The collapse of a similar security agreement with Iraq in 2011 led to the US pulling all its troops out of the country, which is currently suffering its worst sectarian violence since 2008. (Courtesy: Dawn)

New Leader Of Pakistani Taliban Could Splinter Group.

New Leader Of Pakistani Taliban Could Splinter Group.

Mullah Fazlullah, the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban 
 (AP Photo/SITE Intel Group)

WASHINGTON | 15 Nov 2013 :: The suspected U.S. drone strike that killed the leader of Pakistan’s Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban), Hakimullah Mehsud, has set off a power struggle within the militant group, and has exposed sharp divisions that analysts say could further destabilize the region as NATO combat forces leave neighboring Afghanistan in 2014.

Taliban sources and local journalists in turbulent North Waziristan and South Waziristan in Pakistan told VOA that the selection of hardline cleric Mullah Fazlullah as the new chief has left the group in disarray that may result in a splintering to smaller, difficult-to-control factions.

Fazlullah was selected by a council of Pakistani Taliban leaders after the death of its chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, November 1.  Fazlullah, who reportedly has the support of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, became known as ‘Mullah Radio’ for his fiery anti-Western and pro-jihadist speeches on FM radio in the Swat Valley of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province between 2007 and 2009   Exploiting anti-government sentiment in his home region and using brutal tactics, Fazlullah took control of the Swat Valley and instituted harsh Islamic rule that terrorized much of the population.

But in 2009, Pakistan's army launched an operation against militants in the area. Wounded in the fighting, Fazlullah managed to escape to Afghanistan, where analysts and journalists say he remains to this day.  In 2012 he claimed responsibility for ordering the failed assassination of the teenage activist, Malala Yousufzai, for her efforts to educate girls in Swat. (Source: AP/AFP).

Taliban founder shares dais with PC, netizens rap Govt.

Taliban founder shares dais with PC, netizens rap Govt.

PNS | New Delhi| 15 Nov 2013 ::  The presence of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, one of the founding members of Taliban and once a close confidant of its former chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, in a function also attended by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Goa on Sunday has created a flutter. The cyberspace was abuzz with netizens giving vent to their ire against the UPA Government after pictures of Chidambaram and Zaeef at the venue of the event went viral.

“Sushilkumar Shinde must have been busy at a music release function else he would have gone to welcome Mullah Zaeef at the airport,” said one Abhigyan on Twitter.

“How does this terrorist get Indian visa,” tweeted Sourabh Bharti. Officials of Ministry of Home Affairs, however, were tightlipped on the granting of visa to Zaeef, who is currently acting as Taliban’s contact point with the outside world. The Taliban leader delivered lectures at the Goa event on Saturday and Sunday.

Zaeef was a deputy Minister in the Taliban Government and was its Ambassador to Pakistan during the 9/11 attacks on the US. He was known for his vitriolic speeches in his Press conferences in Islamabad. After the US invaded Afghanistan and the Taliban lost power, he was captured in Pakistan in 2001. He was then sent to the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison where he was lodged till 2005.

Strangely, however, he later on managed to get off the list of terrorists prepared by the US. Intriguingly, Zaeef is said to have never apologised for his role in Taliban.

He was also not produced before any tribunal by the US forces. After landing back in Kabul, for several years he was under house arrest. Later, he emerged in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and was seen in several peace talks with the Western world and is still considered as Taliban’s ambassador.(Courtesy:The Pioneer)

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

SEOUL | 15 Nov 2013 ::  North Korea denied it was sending military aid to the Syrian government, one of its few close allies, in its battle against rebel forces after media reports said that Pyongyang had sent advisors and helicopter pilots.

"Some foreign media are floating misinformation that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) supplied war equipment to Syria, its airmen are directly involved in air-raids on insurgent troops in Syria," the North's state run KCNA news agency said late on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported in October that 15 North Korean helicopter pilots were operating in Syria "on behalf of President Bashar Assad's regime" and said the report had been confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Other reports have identified North Korean artillery officers as being in Syria, although they were said not to be directing fire.

North Korea has long-standing ties with Syria and constructed a plutonium reactor there that was destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2007. It also has links with Syria's chemical weapons program.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Assad agreed to destroy all Syria's chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people on August 21.

Japanese media reports in August said Turkey had intercepted a shipment of gas masks and small arms from North Korea to Syria.

The North is under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear weapons and missile program and its role in proliferating nuclear and missile technology.(Courtesy: Dawn)

Bombing near Sunni mosque in northern Iraq kills 12 worshippers, wounds 24.

Bombing near Sunni mosque in northern Iraq kills 12 worshippers, wounds 24.

People carry a wounded man at the scene of a car
 bomb after it exploded as worshippers were leaving
 a Sunni mosque in Kirkuk, northern Iraq on October
 15, 2013 (AFP, Marwan Ibrahim)

Kirkuk | 15 Oct 2013 ::  A bomb ripped through a crowd of worshippers as they left a Sunni mosque in Iraq Tuesday, killing 12 people, as they marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Three children, a policeman and an army officer were among the dead from the blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, which also wounded 26 people, police and a doctor said.

Bodies, their clothes covered in blood, were placed in the back of a police pickup truck to be taken away, an AFP journalist reported.

Angry and grieving people railed against those who carried out the attack, shouting: "God take revenge on those who are evil!"

Worshipper Khalaf al-Obaidi said he narrowly avoided the blast because he had gone to greet one of his brothers inside the mosque instead of leaving.

"Then the bomb exploded," Obaidi said.

"You look and you see your friend or your brother or your relatives (on the ground). Even an infidel would not do this," he said. "God willing, there will be security and safety for this country and its poor people."

Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) to sacrifice his son at God's command, is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year.

In Iraq, as around the Islamic world, people mark the holiday by slaughtering an animal, normally a sheep, and giving the meat to the poor.

As with various other religious occasions in Iraq, observance differs between Sunnis and Shiites.

Eid al-Adha begins for Sunnis on Tuesday this year, while most Shiites consider Wednesday to be the first of the holiday.

"We ask God to keep the ghost of sectarian strife... and civil war, on which those who sold their soul to the devil are insisting, away from our country," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in pre-recorded remarks broadcast on Tuesday.

"Our region today is in a storm of violence moved by sectarianism and terrorists, and our country is in the heart of this storm," he said.

On Monday, UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov had called for unity in Iraq on the occasion of the holiday.

?On this Eid and at this crucial time, I would like to plead for unity and understanding among all the Iraqis and their political, religious, and civil leaders," Mladenov said in a statement.

"It is only through working together that the people of Iraq can stand up to the violence that is tearing society apart."

Other attacks in Kirkuk, Nineveh and Baghdad provinces on Tuesday killed three people and wounded three more, officials said.

Almost nothing is safe from attack by militants in Iraq, and violence has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.

Secure targets such as prisons have been struck in recent months, along with cafes, markets, mosques, football fields, weddings and funerals.

Attacks on both Sunni and Shiite gatherings have raised fears of a relapse into the intense sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007.

Analysts say the Shiite-led government's failure to address the grievances of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority -- which complains of being excluded from government jobs and senior posts and of abuses by security forces -- has driven the surge in unrest.

Violence worsened sharply after security forces stormed a Sunni anti-government protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23, sparking clashes in which dozens died.

And while the authorities have made some concessions aimed at placating anti-government protesters and Sunnis in general, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-Al-Qaeda fighters, underlying issues remain unaddressed.

The government has enacted new security measures, stepped up executions and carried out wide-ranging operations against militants for more than two months, but has so far failed to curb the violence.

The latest unrest takes the number of people killed so far this month to more than 310, and to over 5,000 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.(Courtesy: AFP)